from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
The Red Gunard.
www.flickr.com/photos/barnoid/2347475633/
The Grondin Rouge, the Red Gunard is a
tasty fish with firm white to white ivory meat. It will be fresh on nearly all
of France's fish restaurant menus, and they are also popular in the home as
they are easily and quickly cooked. The fish are almost always bought and served
as filets because most fish are too large for a single diner. The small fish are
very bony but are sought after for the flavor they bring to fish soups..
The Red Gunard is a member of the
scorpionfish family, and it does have a little poison in some spikes on their
gils and on their dorsal fins (back fins).
Worry not they will have been removed before being sold in the
supermarket or offered by a restaurant.
The red gunard and close family members
will be on menus all over France as they are caught both in the Mediterranean
and the Atlantic; they will be offered grilled, fried, poached, or baked.
Red Gunard
Print from 1763-1764
www.flickr.com/photos/fdctsevilla/22166394736/
The Red Gunard on French Menus:
Filet de Grondin Rouge Sauce Saint Jacques au Crémant
- Red Gunard served
with a sauce made from the king
scallop meat with a Crémant sparkling wine. (Since this menu listing came from a menu in Burgundy it would have been the Crémant de Bourgogne).
Grondin Rouge Provencal.
Filet de Grondin Rouge, Soufflé
de Homard,
Sauce Champagne – A filet of red gunard served with a soufflé
made from the two-clawed
European lobster and a Champagne
accented Sauce.
Grondin Rouge, Caviar d'Aubergine, Légumes de Printemps Braisés,
Jus Charcuterie - Red
Gunard served with eggplant caviar and braised spring vegetables. Eggplant
caviar has many variations though the most well-known is Papetond'Aubergine. I imagine that this is
the recipe used here or it will be very close.
The sauce, a Jus Charcuterie is a meat sauce; here it will have been
made with the addition of white wine and flavored
with herbs. (Charcutiers originally only sold cured or uncooked
meat products but now are usually joined together with Traiteurs who
originally only sold cooked foods. Many
of these combined Charcuterie-
Traiteurs are incredible, fabulous delis).
Charcuterie – Traiteur.
Grondin Rouge et Ratatouille Citronnée, Sauce Vierge – Red Gunard served with lemon accented Ratatouille and a Sauce Vierge. Sauce Vierge - A
virgin sauce with the name coming from the
use of virgin
olive oil. Sauce Vierge will most usually be on your menu with fish dishes. With the virgin olive oil will be fresh tomatoes,
garlic,
lemon
juice, basil,
red wine
vinegar, salt,
and black
pepper. The sauce will be served slightly warm but not cooked as olive oil
loses all of its flavors when cooked. The sauce will be poured on the fish just
before it is served. The inclusion of
Ratatouille and a Sauce Vierge allows me to place this dish in the City of Nice on the Meditteranean or certainly in Provence.
Ratatouille
www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/42677986/
Grondin Rouge,
Juste Cuit / Courgette
Fleur Farcie / Vierge Acidulée – Red
gunard perfectly
and lightly cooked served with stuffed courgette
(USA zucchini) flowers with a
slightly acidic virgin sauce. (For more
about Virgin Sauce see the menu listing above).
Pan-fried cod
filet with sauce vierge.
www.flickr.com/photos/foodista/8451017061/
Grondin Rouge Juste
Rôt i, Jeunes Poireaux
et Shimeji – A red
gunard perfectly
roasted and served with young
leeks and Shimeji mushrooms. -
Shimeji is the Japanese name and the adopted French name for an Asian
mushroom now farmed in France. (A close family member does grow wild in
Northern Europe). The variety called the buna-shimeji is the one most likely to be on this French menu. This particular
mushroom is admired because it passes on to the foods cooked with it the taste of UMAMI. (The Latin name of buna-shimeji is hypsizygus marmoreus or hypsizygus tessellatus).
Red Gunard
This fish is rarely seen on UK menus as
the Brits demand their favorites, Cod, Salmon, Tuna, and Shrimp, none of which
are caught locally. Despite being headlined
by celebrity chefs, the gunard family members rarely make UK menus. British fishermen and women consider this a
bycatch: they happily unload their
unwelcomed catches onto French boats where it will be sold in France as a very
tasty and relatively inexpensive fish. The red gunard and its family members are flown to the USA chilled or frozen from as far away as New Zealand.
Red gurnard with cockles
and vegetables.
www.flickr.com/photos/thecssdiv/5491001335/
The Grondin Gallinette, the Sapphirine Gurnard
, tub gurnards or Common Searobin is another member of the scorpionfish family.
Sapphirine gurnard and the Red Gunard are both highly valued for their taste
and one or another of these two very similar fish will be an essential part of
an authentic Bouillabaisse or Bouillabaisse Marseille and in the North of
France in the different tasting Bouillabaisse de Nord.
The Grondin Rouge, the Red Gunard in the
languages of France's neighbors:
(Catalan - iluerna roja), (Dutch -engelse poon), (German
-seekuckuck), (Italian - capone coccio), (Spanish - peona), (Latin - aspitrigla cuculus)
------------------------------------------
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2019
--------------------------------
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